The Feast of the Holy Name -- The Very Rev Anthony R Pompa

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity

The Feast of the Holy Name

January 1, 2017

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, PA

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

“What is behind this year’s most popular Lehigh Valley Names”? This headline appeared  the Morning Call newspaper this past Thursday. It seems of course that the most popular names used in America is tracked, and the newspaper did its own localized version.

According to the Social Security Administration the most popular names in America in the year 2016 were….Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Noah, Liam, and Mason.

Locally, in a non scientific poll  of course, we learn that the most popular name chosen for new borns at St. Luke’s this past year were Amelia and Ethan.

According to this piece in the Morning Call, it seems the trend today is that folk may have  a few names in mind when their newborns arrive. Then when they see what the newborn looks like, a decision for naming is made.  Interesting.

What is in a name? Does it matter how its chosen?

In the narrative realm of the Spiritual it seems to matter quite a bit! Today we observe the Feast of the Holy Name.  We typically fly over this feast day because it infrequently lands on a Sunday.

The Gospel according to Luke brings us from the Christmas birth narrative of Shepherds giving witness to an astounding God event found  in the humble beginnings of a barn scene, to the important observance of Jewish religious tradition that gives homage to the covenant between God and God’s people.

Under the law of Moses found in Leviticus,  it was, and is customary that all male children  on the 8^th day after birth be circumcised. This was also a time when family and friends gathered for the Naming of the child. St. Luke seems particularly focused on the naming of Jesus and from where the name came.  He was "called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb" (Lk 2:21).  

So, What is in a Name? What is hoped  for in a naming?

If I said to you, who have you known in your life who you would describe as one who had demonstrated kindness and compassion?  Or who have you known (or know) in your life who you would describe as Strength?  Or who have you known (or know) in your life who has made sacrifices for the sake of Love? Or who have you known (or know) who may through some act of  wisdom or truth, may have saved  you from a poor decision, or unhealthy habit, relationship, or pattern?

Do you know their names?   I bet you do.

And so there we meet Jesus.  Named St. Luke tells us by the angels who announced his promise before he was even conceived in the womb. The name given him that day in Hebrew, Jeshoshua, which means, Yahweh, or God Saves.

Here we meet this person!  This person who will become the very transparency of God on earth. Jesus.  What is so unique and transformative about our following, meeting, and adoring this person, is that by meeting him, we meet compassion and kindness; we meet Strength in times of trouble, we meet sacrifice for the sake of Love, we meet wisdom and truth that gives the power we do not possess on our own to be liberated from anything that might hold us captive! (Salvation)

You see this feast day which finds its context in the narrative of Christmas we realize as Brother Geoffrey Tristram of the SSJE writes, that Christmas is not about the arrival of a new philosophy or even a new religion, but the arrival of a person.

Have you met Compassion and Kindness?  Have you met Steadfast strength in time of trial? Have met sacrifice for the sake of Love? Have you met wisdom and truth and Grace that liberates?  Do you know their names?  I bet you do.  

Jesus. Jehosua, God Saves. 

Christmas Eve 2016 - The Very Rev Anthony R Pompa

Christmas Eve 2016

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity

Bethlehem, PA

The Very Rev Anthony R Pompa

Some years ago, when my very good friend Pat was driving down the road, his then 9 year old daughter Abigail in the back seat, she voiced an unexpected question, as only 9 year olds can do.  “Dad she said, what happens when an atheist dies?”

Her priestly father as he tells it, immediately felt inside of himself the pressure of the moment. An opportunity to pass on the poignancy of his lifetime of theological study and work, as well as the pressure of sorting through the thicket of theological reflections and teachings regarding faith and belief, hoping to land somewhere that his 9 year old daughter would hear worthy of the God he hoped she would know.

In the moment, he launched into his narrative. A narrative about the complexity of the human condition and the magnaminous nature of our Creator. Three lines in to what he believed was pure theological magic, Abigail interrupted,

No Dad, stop,  that’s not what I meant.  I just wanna know if  like, they have a service of some sort and do people come  to it.

Many years of preaching at Christmas, and tonight, in the midst of the complexity of the human condition in which we live, this preacher wonders if perhaps we ought to just take a lunge at the punch line for fear that the 9 year old in all of us may not be yearning for a deep theological reflection this night.

Here it goes. Christmas is about Hope and Love. Plain and simple, straight and forward.

Close your eyes and take a breath. Take a pause and this night and in your daily life, just listen. Listen with your heart and listen with your soul.

Listen to the story of the Scriptures.

As these angels on our screen stand with majesty and care over us, hear the poetry of their message to be not afraid, for God is with us. Everywhere and ALL the time. No matter how challenging life may get, God is with us. Mary, Joseph, Be Not Afraid. Which didn’t meant there wasn’t anything to be afraid of, but instead meant Don’t let Fear hold you back! Hold you back from taking your part in this Godly orchestration of Hope and Love found in this Jehoshua (Jesus) which means God Saves. Find the courage to Say YES to Hope and Love.  Be Not Afraid! May we find the courage to say Yes to Hope and Love.

Listen to the Awe found  in the experience and voices of common Shepherds, who standing in the fields doing what they do in life everyday,  lift their voices as they “see” God at work in the world, causing them to be astonished and among the first to tell the story  of the  birth of Hope and Love. May we in our everyday be visited by God’s Holy Astonishment and tell of the birth of Hope and Love wherever and whenever we see it!

Listen to the majesty of Kings who journey toward the promise of a star lit in the sky, that will lead them to humbly fall to their knees and offer the best of what they have at the feet of pure beauty , Hope and Love, enfleshed and born in the person of Jesus,  taking his nascent breaths in the  humblest of circumstances.  Listen to these Kings and be so in tune with with these life-saving virtues that they were wise enough to see the contrast found  in  Herod’s dark design of violence and oppression, becoming  Wise as they  choose to go home another way, choosing the Hope and Love of Jesus, over the despair and hatred of  Herod. May also be offer the best of who we are to our Lord of Hope and Love, and may we be wise in our recognizing Despair and Hatred, and choosing the instead the path of Christ, the path of Hope and Love.  

Listen, to the beauty of melody and song, songs of Hope and Love in each note and lyric lifted to the rafters of this Cathedral and beyond, and let them bolster your spirit, lift your hearts, and fill you with courage to Love more boldy. May we LOVE more boldly as God Loves us so boldly.

Just listen.  Listen.  Listen for God’s footsteps, heartbeat, breath, for at Christmas Hope and Love Come to dwell among us.    Can you hear?

And if even if all this picture I paint this night fails , if it seems as if the preacher has failed you with overdone religious imagery and narrative………..

Try this.

Imagine perhaps the Grinch. Imagine the Grinch standing puzzling and puzzling. Imagine the Grinch looking upon us as if we are all the Who’s in Whoville, even as if the darkness of a night may strip us sometimes of all the packages, boxes, and bags that we may feel necessary for the security and celebration of our lives.

Imagine perhaps the Grinch, any Grinch for that matter, whose hearts have become small and are in need of Grace to grow bigger.  Imagine that Grinch puzzling for three hours as each of us, Each of us Who, tall and small, sing our song of LOVE and HOPE, the best present of all.

Imagine perhaps the Grinch, or any Grinch for that matter, who through singing comes to know what we know, “Maybe Christmas…perhaps….means a little bit more!”

And as the theological master Seuss says,

Imagine what happens then?

Well, the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day!

And so does ours at least.

Merry Christmas!